In the manufacture of furniture, styles and design appearance are constantly changing to meet the changing demands of the marketplace.
The use of glass has become an ever increasing factor in the manufacture of furniture. Glass has many features which lend utilitarian attributes to the associated furniture as well as the aesthetic attributes. Heretofore, the use of glass in the manufacture of tables, for example, has been somewhat limited. Glass tops have been employed as protective coverings over coffee tables, cocktail tables, desks, and the like. Typically, in such environment, the glass tops have satisfactorily functioned to protect the underlying supporting surface from scratching, marring, soiling, and discoloration caused by moisture and alcohol, for example. Since the glass surface is typically inert to all of the foregoing, it has functioned well.
Also, glass tops have been employed in the manufacture of tables, wherein the glass top is supported by a frame-like portion of the table. In such items, since the supporting frame for the glass top is disposed only at peripheral portions of the glass top, the central area of the table is thereby rendered optically transparent to provide an attractive overall appearance generally perceived as having less overall mass.
In a great many instances, in furniture employing glass tops, the supporting base portion consumes a major portion of space between the undersurface of the glass top; or alternatively, leg supports are disposed at spaced intervals typically located adjacent the corners when rectangular top configurations are used.
It has been difficult to design furniture, and especially tables, employing glass tops, wherein the glass top extends outwardly from a single centrally located support.
Other structures for supporting glass tops for tables have included the formation of apertures extending through the table top for reception of threaded fasteners for attaching leg support structures. In these instances, the structural aspects have been acceptable, but the resultant top surfaces of the glass tops are typically interrupted by the head portions of the fasteners.
It is an object of the present invention to produce a table employing a glass top which can extend outwardly from a centrally located support, for example, resulting in an aesthetically attractive item of furniture having a minimum of encumbered space beneath the top, and an uninterrupted top surface.